ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 239 



year after being sown it will make a half more hay 

 than will red clover and the hay. is -of better quality. 

 It may then be plowed under as red clover would be, 

 or it may continue another year with more profit, 

 while red clover can not, since that plant is almost 

 biennial in its nature. So it is certainly not true 

 that alfalfa can not fit into a rotation, no matter how 

 short it is. 



Even as a catch crop in corn I found when I 

 mixed red clover, alfalfa and crimson clover to- 

 gether and sowed at last cultivation that I got more 

 plants through the winter of alfalfa than of either 

 of the other clovers. Doubtless on good lands, filled 

 with lime, alfalfa as a manuring crop to be sown in 

 corn would be more profitable than almost anything 

 that could be sown. The difficulty in the way of 

 this use is that usually the seed is too dear and when 

 one gets a stand of alfalfa he sees too much profit 

 in leaving it to let him desire to plow it under. 



How Long Should Alfalfa Stand? This is very 

 much a local question. We have instances of alfalfa 

 fields 10, 20 even 40 years old that have never been 

 re-seeded. I have walked over fields that were said 

 to be 40 years old and they were yet in vigorous pro- 

 duction. This was in Texas, near San Antonio. 

 This book is not written for men who can grow al- 

 falfa in that way; they need no books save pocket- 

 books. The fact that alfalfa is such a long-lived 

 plant in dry regions with well drained soils and dry, 

 warm winters has worked to mislead men living far- 

 ther east or north. If they could forget that alfalfa 



